LITMIR.BIZ

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right moment to spring—

      “Are you okay?”

      Taylor gave a small shriek as the voice came out of nowhere, then pressed a hand to her chest as she recognized Cole’s voice. Beneath her palm, her heart hammered.

      “You scared the crap out of me.” She took a couple of deep breaths, willing her heart to slow down. “I thought Chucky was back.”

      “Sorry about that. I startled the calves when I came out of the machine shop, so I thought I’d hang until they settled.”

      She let out one last breath, then reached down to zip her sweatshirt, doing her best to regain her equilibrium during the simple act. Once zipped, she asked, “How was poker?”

      “I lost.” It was a simple statement of fact. “Thanks for taking care of my sister. Feeding her, I mean.”

      “She’s cute,” Taylor said, taking a few steps closer. “And she seemed upset. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

      “I appreciate that.” He fell silent as Taylor came to a stop a few feet away from him. The wind gently lifted her hair, and she pulled a hand out of her pocket to brush it away from her face.

      “Do you want to be alone?” There had to be a reason he was out here when his little sister was in the house.

      He breathed deeply, then raised his gaze to the dark horizon past the house. “No,” he said simply.

      Amazing how one small word could mean so much.

      “Me either.”

      He turned his head. “Why’s that?”

      “I got three rejection emails tonight. What happened to you?”

      “A bully messed with my sister.”

      “You’re kidding.” She felt a sudden welling of protectiveness toward a girl she didn’t even know. Jancey seemed like an okay kid. “Who?”

      “Our step-aunt. The one who has control of our ranch.”

      “The handshake deal.”

      “Followed by a lot of paperwork.”

      Taylor looked down at the clumped-up dirt in the dimly lit pen. The calves had settled, and the night was quiet. She focused on Cole, who was still staring out across the dark fields. “What did she do?”

      Cole shook his head.

      Taylor moved forward to rest her forearms on the rail next to him, keeping her gaze on him. “Do you know why I’m the perfect person to talk to?”

      He glanced over at her. “Why?”

      “Sometimes an outsider sees things in a different way. And I don’t know anyone to gossip to. Win.”

      He let out a short breath. “There’s pretty much only one way to see this.” He dropped his gaze and shook his head. When he looked up again, he met her eyes in a way that made her insides tumble. “But I will confess to having thought about getting your take on this.”

      “Why didn’t you?” Neither had moved, but it felt as if he were closer.

      “Just wasn’t there yet.”

      “You know,” she said softly, “I’m pretty sure I’d rather have three job rejections than find out someone had messed with my sister. The rejections are about me. The bullying…”

      “Makes me want to punch Miranda’s face in.”

      “That’s your step-aunt?”

      “That’s her. She messed with Jancey’s college application. Did her some damage credibility-wise.”

      Taylor’s mouth fell open. “Will you be able to straighten out the matter?”

      “We hope.”

      Taylor thought about how devastated she would have been had someone messed with her applications. The journey to success started in high school and segued into college. That had been hammered into her for so long that, even now, it shocked her to think of someone messing with another person’s educational future. “What exactly did she do to Jancey?”

      “Suggested that her entry essay was written by someone else.”

      Taylor shook her head. “That’s low. Very low.”

      “Welcome to Miranda World.”

      “Which college?”

      “Danner.”

      Taylor was familiar with the school. Small but prestigious. Located near Boise. She’d worked with at least one person who’d graduated from there. “If there’s anything I can do—”

      Cole reached out and covered her hand with his. Shock at the unexpected contact was quickly followed by warmth, and Taylor found that she no longer had a whole lot to say. Cole squeezed her fingers, then slid his hand away. A silent bit of communication from a guy who didn’t share easily. He hadn’t exactly spilled his secrets, but he was opening up to her, little by little. And even if things proved to be complicated, she wouldn’t give back this moment.

      He jerked his head toward his house. “Jancey’s still up. Want to watch a Rodney movie?”

      She blinked at him, surprised by the question, then smiled. “Yes. I would.”

      “I thought so.” He pushed off the fence, and even though he didn’t offer his hand again, they walked to the house, close enough that every now and again their shoulders bumped, and Taylor realized that she felt more at peace, more centered than she’d felt in a long, long time.

      The only problem was that it was happening in a place where she didn’t belong.

      * * *

      JANCEY WAS NOT much of a chaperone. They’d barely gotten twenty minutes into the movie when she fell asleep curled up in Karl’s big chair with her fist tucked under her chin. She looked so vulnerable and emotionally spent that Cole’s anger welled.

      He must have been telegraphing because Taylor leaned into him during a particularly raucous part of the movie. “I know it’s tough,” she murmured. “Better to hurt yourself than see someone you love hurting.”

      He was so damned glad she didn’t say something along the lines of “it’ll be all right.” It may well be, but they didn’t know for sure.

      “This is how Miranda works. She gets people so stirred up that they make stupid mistakes while she stays cool and collected. She feeds off this stuff.”

      “Lovely woman.”

      “Jancey’s tough,” he said. His little sister stirred in her sleep at the sound of her name, then settled again. “But…”

      His voice trailed off as Taylor took his hand, very much as he’d taken hers earlier, and laced her fingers with his. It could have been the gesture of a good friend…or something else.

      He was too wound up to properly evaluate, so instead he went with his gut, shifted on the sofa and brought his hand up to touch her face, lightly cupping her cheek. She held his gaze, raised her eyebrows, her lips curving into a soft I’m-game-if-you-are smile.

      Hell, why not?

      His lips met hers in a butterfly kiss. Barely a touch, but electric all the same. Her mouth opened, inviting him in. He accepted as he pushed his hand into her silky hair, twisting the strands gently as the kiss deepened.

      Had his sister not been there, he would have pressed Taylor back onto the sofa and gotten serious about this. An explosion on the television screen yanked them back to the here and now, and he shot a look over at Jancey to see if she was still asleep. Thankfully she was. Taylor pulled back a little.

      “You’re distracting me from Rodney,” she whispered.

      “Who?”

      She

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